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ABOUT THIS BOOK

The Turbulent Years opens in the 1980s. Sanjay Gandhi is dead under unexpected, tragic circumstances; not many years later, Indira Gandhi is assassinated; Rajiv Gandhi, ‘the reluctant politician’, abruptly becomes India’s Prime Minister.

Pranab Mukherjee was witness to (and, sometimes, a participant in) the momentous events of the 1980s and the 1990s, a period that was indisputably the most turbulent in India’s post-Independence history. An insider, he sheds new light on every major political occurrence of the time—from Rajiv Gandhi’s ascendance as India’s Prime Minister to the emergence of P.V. Narasimha Rao as the leader of a nation; from Operation Blue Star to the Babri Masjid fiasco.

Equally, Mukherjee is candid about each of the professional crises that marked this period of his career—the rumours that he wanted to elbow aside Rajiv Gandhi for the top post; the possible reasons for his ouster from Rajiv’s Cabinet and, later, the party; and the allegation that he aided and abetted the Left by not imposing President’s rule in West Bengal and Tripura in the late 1980s.

The second volume of Mukherjee’s autobiography is not only an honest account of his years in power (and in the wilderness), but also a cogent analysis of the political and social turning points of a key period in the evolution of modern India.

AUTHOR OF THE BOOK

Pranab Mukherjee assumed office as the President of India on 25 July 2012. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha five times from 1969, and twice to the Lok Sabha from 2004—a Member of Parliament for thirty-seven years. He has unparalleled experience in governance, with the rare distinction of being Minister for twenty-two years. He has served as Foreign, Defence, Commerce and Finance Minister, as also Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission and, on several occasions, held charge of more than one portfolio.

A recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, Pranab Mukherjee’s intellectual and political prowess is widely admired. He has been long acclaimed for his role as a consensus builder on difficult national issues.